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A Solar Storm Heading Toward Earth Suddenly Changed in Ways Scientists Didn’t Predict

Scientists have uncovered surprising behavior inside a powerful solar eruption that challenges existing models and could change how researchers predict space weather.

A massive eruption on the Sun sent a cloud of magnetized plasma racing toward Earth, where it underwent an extraordinary transformation. Over a distance of just 13 million miles, the cloud expanded by 21% as the plasma inside became three times hotter, defying expectations about how these solar structures evolve.

Researchers led by the University of Iowa documented the rapid growth using observations from two spacecraft positioned along the cloud’s path. Their findings challenge existing models of solar storms and could improve predictions of space weather events capable of disrupting satellites, navigation systems, and electrical grids.

Scientists Develop a Clever New Way To Kill Cancer Cells From the Inside

Scientists have developed an experimental strategy that exploits a chemical byproduct of cancer cells to produce anticancer drugs directly inside them.

Scientists in Japan have developed an experimental method that uses a chemical produced by cancer cells to manufacture anticancer drugs directly inside them. The approach relies on carbon monoxide, a toxic gas that certain tumors produce in unusually high amounts, to activate a chemical reaction designed to destroy cancer cells while limiting damage to healthy tissue.

In a proof-of-concept study published in Nature Communications, researchers at the RIKEN Pioneering Research Institute (PRI) demonstrated that their system could generate drug compounds selectively in cultured cancer cells. The findings suggest a possible alternative to conventional chemotherapy, although the technique has not yet been tested in animals or humans.

OpenAI Compaction Flaw Let Researchers Bypass Hidden Reasoning Protections

OpenAI’s compaction feature, which shrinks a long conversation to save space, could be turned into a way to copy a model’s hidden reasoning out in plain text, security firm Xint has shown.

OpenAI’s reasoning models work through a problem before answering, and the service normally returns only the raw reasoning as an encrypted item the user cannot read. The method got past the protections OpenAI added in August against this kind of reasoning theft. OpenAI confirmed the problem and fixed it on October 23, according to Xint.

Xint ran the technique against gpt-5.6-sol, one of OpenAI’s reasoning models, using math and algorithm puzzles its researchers wrote themselves. The reasoning it pulled out came from those same requests, and Xint did not claim the method could reach another user’s reasoning.

PHP Issues Second Windows Security Update in Five Days to Fix Brotli Code Execution Flaw

PHP has rebuilt its official Windows packages for PHP 8.2 through 8.5 to fix CVE-2026–111497, a flaw in the Brotli compression library that the packages include. The flaw can let an attacker corrupt memory and potentially run code.

PHP says the flaw can be reached through the cURL extension when the extension decompresses HTTP responses automatically. cURL leaves that off by default, but applications and HTTP client libraries can turn it on.

The rebuilt packages, numbered 8.5.12–1, 8.4.27–1, 8.3.36–1 and 8.2.35–1, come five days after the October 21 releases that fixed the two PHP2Shell remote code execution flaws. They use the same PHP source, so those fixes stay in place, and they now include Brotli 1.2.1, the fixed version.

UCreator Android Spyware Can Steal Telegram 2FA Passwords and Clone WeChat Accounts

A rentable Android spyware kit called uCreator takes over Telegram and WeChat accounts by hiding its code inside working copies of the two apps, researcher Ovi found. It only reaches people who install one of these tampered copies, spread outside the official app stores, or who run WeChat inside the kit makers’ own container app.

The kit’s Telegram part matches Baohuo, a backdoor that Doctor Web reported in October 2025. Doctor Web found Baohuo in tampered copies of Telegram X, an Android app from Telegram. At the time, the company estimated that more than 58,000 devices were infected.

The Hacker News compared the two reports. Doctor Web’s technical description of Baohuo lists the same code namespace, com.ucreator.tgjar, the same command-and-control (C2) server, and matching command names as Ovi’s analysis.